These days, it’s not uncommon for phones to share two big selling points: a partnership with a trusted photography brand and flashy AI features. The Xiaomi 17T Pro, launched this week in Vienna, is no different, boasting Leica-tuned cameras and fresh new AI skills from Google’s text-to-video tool, Gemini Omni.
Of course, Leica is a storied brand with 157 years of history — so how does Omni’s presence on the Xiaomi 17T Pro sit with this photography heritage?
At a post-launch roundtable attended by TechRadar, the German camera giant — which has been collaborating with Xiaomi since 2022 — shared its take on the utility of generative AI, and its remarks were decidedly diplomatic.
For context, at the launch itself, Google made a cameo appearance to reintroduce Gemini Omni, which debuted at Google I/O 2026 earlier this month and is available on compatible Android phones, including the Xiaomi 17T series.
On stage in Vienna, Erin Pettigrew, Director of Product Experience at Gemini, generated a postcard-style video of herself enjoying the city’s cafe culture “to send back to [her] friends and family,” presumably because doing so was easier than filming an actual video of herself enjoying Vienna’s cafe culture.
Here’s what Leica had to say about generative AI tools like Omni:
“The philosophy of Leica is always to create authentic images; real images that really replicate reality,” said Marius Eschweiler, VP of Business Unit Mobile at Leica. “I think there is a little difference between customers who are choosing [to use] a smartphone for taking images [and traditional photographers], and I think we are offering smartphone users a good Leica experience with different Leica modes that are focused on authenticity.
“But there are also use cases [for generative AI], like this cute video postcard Erin [Pettigrew] presented. This is just a different use case. Whether you want to take a serious image or create something with generative AI — I think that’s a different use case. Most likely, you won’t see it on a Leica M camera, but I think on a Xiaomi 17T series, it makes perfect sense.”
Leica’s Head of Development and Engineering for Mobile, Pablo Acevedo Noda, was also keen to point out that Leica offers a Content Credentials feature, which embeds a digital signature into photos taken with Leica hardware — including the best Xiaomi phones — to verify their authenticity.
“Adding Content Credentials to photos taken with the phone prevents somebody from tampering with the photo afterwards — [or at least] you’ll know that it has been tampered with,” Noda explained.
“Sometimes, it will be obvious — if you add something special with Nano Banana, for example — but sometimes, it will not be obvious. The metadata will have that information there. That’s the important part.”
In a similar vein, Google announced a major upgrade for its Verify AI tool at I/O 2026 to show that it too is concerned about preserving authenticity and combating misinformation (though that feels a little bit like an arms dealer preaching to the masses about gun safety).
The sticky relationship between photography and generative AI has been a topic of conversation for several years now. I’ve asked the likes of Samsung, Qualcomm, and Honor for their thoughts on the subject in the past, and while some of those companies have been looser with their definition of ‘photography’ than others (in the early days of Galaxy AI, Samsung told me “there’s no such thing as a real picture”), most seem to agree that there is a place for generative AI tools in photography, as long as they’re presented to users as a choice.
Of course, there’s a big difference between AI-enhanced photo tweaks and a full-blown text-to-image machine like Gemini Omni, but it’s clear that tech companies are aware of (and in many cases, reacting to) consumer concerns surrounding AI.
My hunch is that Leica — a 157-year-old camera maker — has its own private thoughts about tools like Gemini Omni, but diplomacy prevails when multiple companies are involved in producing a single smartphone such as the Xiaomi 17T Pro. At least we know that Leica’s traditional M cameras are safe from generative AI for now…
For more on Xiaomi’s latest handsets, check out our full Xiaomi 17T Pro review and our dedicated feature on the Xiaomi 17T Pro’s excellent 5x telephoto camera.
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